On Board Online March 18 2019

The Penn Yan Central School District in Yates County has one Catholic, one Baptist and 21 Mennonite schools within its boundaries. While relations between the district and those schools have always been good, Superintendent Howard Dennis says he is worried.

Updated state guidelines call for local school districts to conduct extensive reviews of the quality of educational programs of all private and religious schools by December 2021.

In the wake of a new law that gives more victims of child abuse the ability to sue school districts in New York State, insurance companies say school districts appear well-covered by existing policies.

Neither the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal nor Utica National Insurance Group are recommending school districts increase their coverage in light of the Child Victims Act. But leaders of both companies say rate increases and recommendations for increased liability coverage are conceivable if the law leads to significant claims against public schools.

With an April 1 budget deadline coming up fast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued an ultimatum to the state Legislature, saying he will not sign a state budget that does not make the tax cap permanent.

NYSSBA has long opposed the property tax cap. It's not because we love unbridled, runaway property tax hikes; school board members are acutely aware of the financial burdens that taxes place on local residents. But the tax cap is flawed because it greatly diminishes the ability of local school boards to raise enough local revenue when confronted with increases in costs for employee benefits, special education, staffing shortages and an abundance of new mandates.

Some members of the Board of Regents said they were stunned to learn at their March meeting that chronic deficiencies in special education have triggered a federal designation as a "state in need of assistance."

New York met only three of 17 targets in its required federal performance plan for 2016-17 and is expected to meet just two of the targets for 2017-18, Assistant Commissioner of Special Education Christopher Suriano said in a report to the Regents.

A new program to help teachers and other educators become school administrators will kick off next fall as the result of a partnership between Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, 23 Central New York school districts and five higher education institutions in New York State.

The idea is to create a pipeline of candidates who are "motivated, trained, mentored and dedicated to providing excellent leadership in our schools, one of the essential ingredients for giving students a high-quality education," he said.